I have a question for the layout team - how large a scale should I be working in based on the size of the page that Michael sent out in the template and the panels I've sketched out already...
Lately I've been painting on about half an A4, turning it either way to suggest a landscape/portrait orientation.
6 comments:
That's a great question, Mariam. I don't have much experience with layout, so I hope we can iron these types of questions out with Michael and the lay out team soon.
I floated this idea by Jesse the other day, and want to put it in play for discussion here, too: I was thinking it might be good to work on single volumes. In other words, each story could be a free standing comic. We could collect all the individual comics in one slipcase. A publisher might want to put all the stories in one volume, but for what we give to Qatar Foundation I thought single volumes might work better. The advantage would be that the lay out team could work with stories as they come in rather than waiting for all the stories to be finished. It would also let the lay out team work with artists for the entire process, which builds on Felicity's idea. It would also give the artists even more creative freedom. The individual volumes would have to be the same size so they all fit in the slipcase, but the artist would have more freedom to experiment with page orientation, pagination, and other elements.
Patty... those are great suggestions. I also read Felicity's comments about integrating the type and having the layout/design time work with the illustrations. As well as pairing illustrators and 'designers'. I completely agree with her.
Mariam... good question. You can work as large or as small as you wish. We can scan in the material at proper resolutions and make it work. Some illustrators like to work really small, then the original work is scanned at a much higher resolution so the work can be enlarged to fit an entire page (depending on the illustrators preference). I would only warn against working too large. Working A3 or small would be preferable because it will fit well on the scanner.
You could work larger (A2 for example) and the layout team can scan the work in sections and piece it back together in photoshop if needed.
Likewise, any of work can be resized or re-oriented if desired once we digitize it. We can even crop, adjust colors or even individual elements... depending on how the illustration of course.
Even if illustrations are created in 'comic' style with different 'panels' on the same page... we could isolate a particular panel to move it or enlarge it or separate it from the other panels if desired. Again, this depends on the illustration and could take a bit of time... but just know that these options are possible... and probably easier than re-illustrating something if minor changes are needed.
Patty the idea of having separate volumes is great. The book structure team designed the template keeping in consideration this idea.
I agree with Michael of having the illustrators just work on different panels and then leaving it to the book structure team crop, enlarge and combining different panels to keep the rhythm of the story.
Just checking again...are we having the Arabic and Latin on each panel/page or is it divided on recto and verso.
I love the individual volumes too. I think as a marketing idea also, it would do very well where for a parent who is looking to buy these stories for more than one child in the family. With separate volumes it becomes easier to share and each kid can select a story on their own if they choose.
Michael thanks for the info, things should go well then!
Mariam, I think whatever size you are most comfortable working at can be scanned and resized to work, Half an A4 sounds perfect.
In terms of putting the stories together as volumes, this could work. I would say though I am in favour of keeping a strong sense of consistency through maintaining the same pagination / footer structure throughout the series. There is already going to be a wide range of styles based on the mediums of different illustrators, combined with pretty varied content in the stories themselves.
I think if the illustrator/ layout team collaboration works, then both can be involved in the cropping, enlarging and combining different panels to keep the rhythm of the story, as Khadija suggests. I think it would be a shame for the illustrators to have everything laid out rotated, cropped and then all the layout team does is set it into In Design! We can be more helpful than that!
Zoe and I are teamed up ready to start next week on bringing some text into the illustrations when Zoe gets back to Doha. We will be working at VCUQ if anyone else wants to come in and touch base.
Great, Felicity! Please keep us apprised of your work with Zoe. You and Zoe will be forging the path for the rest of us.
Re: pagination, I have two production tracts in mind--one for QF and one for publication. For QF, we could be more experimental with pagination (if we do single volumes) and then if we do find a publisher we can select the pagination that we like best. That might be too complicated (my ignorance of the nitty gritty of lay out makes everything seem wonderfully possible and blissfully easy) so if we want to establish a single pagination system that's fine with me!
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